Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Rainy Day Visitor

When returning from our morning walk we found this handsome guy on the side of our road.

He is the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrepene carolina carolina). These poor fellows are suffering greatly from lack of appropriate habitat. Too much of their woodlands no longer exist and they are killed off in large numbers by cars, pets, and, unfortunately, people who take them in with no idea of how to care for a turtle. We took him away from the road (increasing his chances of survival) and set him down near our little pond. He did not seem to like it here as we saw him heading out of our yard a few hours later. Perhaps we will see him again next year.

UPDATE: Our neighbor (she's just not the type of girl to touch a turtle) just came to the door so we could rescue this guy from the road again. We put him back in our yard. I have thought of relocating him but I have read that they like to stay in the same territory from the time they are born. Looks like we'll have to be extra careful on the road.

(C) 2008, 2009, 2010 Sandy Westermann

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